A group of Indonesian students who've spent six weeks working in Australian cattle stations say they've learned everything from animal welfare to why and how to use swear words.

The program, delivered under an agreement between the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, the Indonesian Society for Animal Science and six partnering universities, brought 15 Indonesian students to the Territory.

The students were given two and a half weeks of intensive pastoral industry training and then sent to cattle stations across Northern Australia.

Deti Inayatun, 21, from Bogor Agricultural University says she found it difficult to face the straight-talking culture, something that she was not used to within the polite Sundanese culture of Bogor, in the cattle stations.

"I was shocked in the first week to hear all the swearing, but then I adapted to it," she said.

"I think the workers realised that Indonesian culture is very refined and polite, so they also adapted to me.

"Working in cattle stations is very tiring, so that’s probably where all the swearing were from - once I started working there, I also used swear words, but only in my heart.”

Yudhistira Pratama, a 20-year-old student from Bandung, says the experience was an eye-opener for both the students and the cattlemen.

"One of the workers asked me 'there are all these terrorism atrocities, and they were committed by Muslims', and he asked why," he said.

"I said that they were results of misunderstandings of the religion - but it was sad to hear this.

"I was tearing up when I realised that this was how people see Islam."

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